Child mental health and maternal depression history in Pakistan

• Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 2016-01, Vol.51 (1), p.49-62
• Main Authors: Maselko, Joanna, Sikander, Siham, Bangash, Omer, Bhalotra, Sonia, Franz, Lauren, Ganga, Nima, Rajan, Divya Guru, O’Donnell, Karen, Rahman, Atif
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Child; Child & adolescent mental health; Child of Impaired Parents - statistics & numerical data; Depression, Mental; Depressive Disorder - epidemiology; Epidemiology; Female; Humans; Intervention; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Mental health; Mothers - statistics & numerical data; Original Paper; Pakistan - epidemiology; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - epidemiology; Prevalence; Psychiatry; Psychological aspects; Questionnaires; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 0933-7954; 1433-9285
• DOI: 10.1007/s00127-015-1143-x

Purpose We address the significant gaps in knowledge of prevalence and correlates of child mental health (CMH) problems outside of high income countries. We describe the prevalence of CMH problems and their correlates with a focus on the association with maternal depression in a sample of seven-year-old children in rural Pakistan. Methods This study was nested in a long-term follow-up of a perinatal depression intervention together with a reference group of non-depressed women, yielding a population representative sample. The Total Difficulties (TD) and component scores of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were used to measure emotional and behavioral difficulties. Results The mean SDQ TD score was 10.6 (standard deviation = 8.3), with 12.5 % of children categorized as “abnormal” using standard cutoffs. Boys had a roughly 1 point higher (worse) SDQ TD score than girls ( p value = 0.04). Children of mothers who were depressed prenatally as well as currently had SDQ TD scores 2.87 points higher than children whose mothers were not depressed at either time point ( p value